BSCL met on February 4, 2021 at 7:30 pm.

Call to order, 7:33 PM (Deborah Wood, President)

Approval of Minutes from January, 2021 meeting: Approved w/o objection

Membership Secretary report on BSCL Memberships for 2021

Linda Gaines, Membership Secretary

There are 146 current memberships. Two-thirds of these were made via online renewals; the rest were paper. Most included contact information, specifically email addresses, but not all.

Old Business

• BSCL Resolution was sent to the County Board regarding proposed changes to the Residential Parking Program (RPP). The Resolution was published in the February Barcroft News.

• Go to https://projects.arlingtonva.us/rppreview/ to see the schedule for residents to comment on provisions of the new plan at the virtual Planning Commission meeting on Monday, Feb. 8th, and the virtual Transportation Commission meeting that is Feb. 4th (same night as our meeting), until 11 pm. If you would like to make comments, you must sign up by 5 pm of the previous day.

• The County Board meeting on Saturday, Feb. 20th, will include final discussion of the proposed RPP and time for public comment. Go to https://countyboard.arlingtonva.us/events/county-board-february-regular-meeting/ to sign up. Paul Olkhovsky intends to speak at this Board meeting about Barcroft’s concerns.

The proposed RPP will be discussed at the Feb. meeting of the Pikes Presidents Group, and possibly a joint resolution will be prepared.

Lily Whitesell with Arlington County held an online meeting earlier this evening on the renovation/restoration of Sparrow Pond. (See presentation here.) Construction is expected to begin in 2022. Installation of a new, bigger culvert will require the closing of the bike trail for approximately nine days at some point. The County will attempt to leave at least one of the two parallel trails open as much as possible. Construction vehicle access will be from Park Road. This will necessitate a major redesign of the trail connector from Park Road and a widening (gravel) of the Four Mile Run trail. This will be permanent because heavy earthmoving equipment will need to get to the gravel pad next to the renovated pond’s forebay to remove the trapped sediment. Extensive plantings of native species will be done. Since it is illegal to move the beavers that have dammed the outlet, causing the pond’s level to rise and water to run through the bike path berm rather than under it through the culvert, Ms Whitesell is hoping the construction activity will induce the beavers to decamp. They generally stick around for just a few years anyway, until they eat all the vegetation they can.

Randy Swart wanted to get it into the record that there is a heating apparatus (actually, heated tape wrapped around the pipes) in the Barcroft Community House crawlspace so the pipes don’t freeze in the winter. It has to be plugged in when needed, in the basement next to the fusebox. There is a thermometer under the sink in the kitchen that shows the temperature in the crawlspace.

Program: The Work of the Arlington County Community Development Citizens Advisory Committee (CDCAC), by Tim Denning, Chairman

Introduction by Rosemary Leffler, Barcroft’s outgoing representative to the Committee

The CDCAC controls the flow of millions of dollars in block grants and other funds primarily to nonprofits working to make life better for Arlington’s disadvantaged citizens. The funds go to many initiatives like low cost dental and after school programs. It directed $1M in CARES Act funding to food aid, for instance. Mr. Denning gave a very informative description of its work and the importance of that work. He pointed to the CDCAC Charter as the most authoritative description of what the committee does and how it goes about it. The group meets once a month (except July and August) and four times in October to review and rank the 40 or so proposals they receive each year.

At the conclusion of the presentation, Ms. Leffler nominated Ellen Eiseman to replace her on the CDCAC as a member from the community. This was seconded and approved unanimously. In line with the CDCAC charter procedures, a letter is being drafted from the BSCL President to Mr. Denning proposing Ms. Eiseman take the position being vacated by Ms. Leffler, her having been selected by democratic process by her neighborhood civic association.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:22 PM.